Training camp observation from 8/16-8/18 (Defense)

When I re-read my post on the offense , it was kind of &#8230; blah! I guess it was because most of the time my focus was on the defense. You can&#8217;t help it. This is a unit that not only going to be good, but exciting and fun to watch for years to come.

It might still be premature to say, but the 2005 draft could turn out to be one of the best in the Cowboys history, if not the league. A big reason for the optimism is what I saw from Canty and Ratliff in this camp. We already know what we got in Ware. With Spears and Burnett showing sign of turning it up, and Barber looking like a steal in the fourth (not to mention the undrafted Pepper Johnson), this draft is looking like the one to remember for a very long time.

DL
Let&#8217;s start with Canty, who is turning into a beast. I don&#8217;t know if we have another player on the squad that has his combination of power and quickness (see the bull rush picture in my picture thread). Canty and Ware got to the QB in the inter-squads plays consistently. I think the sky&#8217;s the limit for Canty.

Then you have Ratliff, who&#8217;s playing nothing like a late round pick. As others have pointed out, his motor&#8217;s always running, but what I like about him is his intangible. He and Ferguson are the comedians, the jokesters on the defense. Whenever there were a OL vs. DL drill, you can always hear the two cheering on the DLmen whenever they got the better of the battle. Even in the Hoyte-Batiste skirmish that happened during a special team play, you could see and hear Ratliff jumping and pumping his teammates. This group is tight, and the camaraderie is something very special that you just can&#8217;t buy.

For a guy who was injured for the first week of camp, Spears looked really good to me. I saw him penetrated the OL a few time during OL vs. DL drills. There was absolutely on sign of him being hurt. Hopefully he can stay healthy from now on.

Pepper Johnson also looked pretty good. You can see on one of the pictures I took he penetrated the line, shed an attempted block by Kincade and leaped in the air as Baker made his throw. The pass was intercepted on the same play.

Coleman &#8211; here&#8217;s another surprise. I actually think that Coleman&#8217;s quietly having a pretty good camp. I can&#8217;t really pinpoint a particular play or two from him, but it just seems that whenever I looked, No. 93 was always around the QB. He&#8217;s much like Singleton. Not flashy, but get the job done.

Hatcher looks one-dimensional to me (speed-rush). Take it with a grain of salt though, I only saw him for four practices so it might not be an accurate observation.

I was hoping to see more of Montavious, but I am not sure if got that many plays.. or maybe I just missed him while he was on? Didn&#8217;t pay much attention to Ferguson, nor did I try to observe Bowen much.

LB

Ok, where do I begin? How about that one guy that I got an autograph from? Glymph it is. As Hostile mentioned in the picture thread, he&#8217;s huge. Size aside, the guy&#8217;s pretty agile for a big guy like him (6&#8217;6&#8221; and 272 lb). He seems always around the ball when he was on the field. I don&#8217;t know if he&#8217;s going to make the team playing a position that&#8217;s deepest in the team. If not, I sure hope he lands on the practice squad. On a personal note, the guy seems like a genuine and humble person. Glad to have a chance to interact with him.

Ellis &#8211; I don&#8217;t know if Parcell and staff are blowing smoke. While Ellis looked good rushing the QB or at LOS, he doesn&#8217;t look as fluid in dropping back as the impression I&#8217;d been given. He might just be tentative due to being new to the position, or that I got spoiled having seen such athletes as Ware, Burnett, Glymph, etc. running so smoothly. Perhaps my expectation is out of whack. After all, he&#8217;s never played the position, and that we fans shouldn&#8217;t expect miracle over night.

Singleton &#8211; some fans keep saying we should trade him, but he&#8217;s that one guy that just gets his job done. He&#8217;s not a flashy player, but seems to be a pretty good run stopper who&#8217;s also capable of dropping back. Aside from what the eyes could see, he&#8217;s also suppose to be a locker room leader, and you can&#8217;t have too many of these on a team. He&#8217;s here to stay.

James &#8211; heard him calling shots. Definitely looking and playing the role of the commander of the defense. I don&#8217;t know if I saw any play from him that really jumped out, but based on the many good reads I had on him, he&#8217;s the last we have to worry. If he doesn&#8217;t turn into a superstar, I am positive he&#8217;ll be a steady force for the Cowboys this year (and hopefully beyond).

Burnett &#8211; being a fan of his, and having heard so many positive reports on him since camp start, I couldn&#8217;t help but be a bit disappointed seeing what I saw. Don&#8217;t be alarmed. It wasn&#8217;t like he did badly. I was just expecting him to be a monster and tearing it up all over the field, but while he got close to the QB in his rushes a few time, I never really saw him getting a sack (maybe I missed them?). On a positive note, in drop back coverage, he looked very smooth. Worst case scenario, he should be a good OLB for the Cowboys. Best of all, he&#8217;s only in the second year and has plenty of room to grow&#8230;

Ayodele &#8211; Other than that one play where he knocked down Mosley&#8217;s coffee, he was invisible to me for the most time during the four practices. I don&#8217;t know why. Maybe it was because I didn&#8217;t look for him, but he just never really caught my eyes.

Hoyte &#8211; he made plays from time to time, but at this point his destination might be the practice squad unless he really shows something in the next few preseason games.

Saldi &#8211; made a play here and there, but don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s done enough to warrant a spot on the roster.. or the practice squad.

Boiman is also quietly having a good week (and camp?). Jus as Singleton, he doesn&#8217;t make a lot of splashes but he seems to always be around the ball. If he makes the squad, that might be at the expense of Fowler, who has been pretty quiet on the field. Another guy who&#8217;s rumored to be traded &#8211; Shanle &#8211; every time I looked up he was still there, but with him not getting many reps in practices, and being showcased in preseason game(s) &#8211; it really does look like his day wearing the Cowboys uniform is coming to an end. Bjork &#8211; the NFL Europe LB from the Admirals &#8211; does anyone know about him? Yup, just what I thought =) I didn&#8217;t spend much time watching him, for a good reason, he&#8217;s not going to stick for long.

Saving the best for last - that guy name Ware. What can I say that you have not already heard? If it&#8217;s possible, he looked even quicker this year (after gaining the extra lbs), and looked to have added the inside swim move to his arsenal of QB rush. I spent a lot of time watching him. In some plays, he easily blew by the offensive tackles with his speed rush. In others, he would start with what appeared to be a speed rush, then quickly countered to swim inside the left tackle to attack the QB. You&#8217;ll see a couple of examples in the pictures I posted. On top of that, he&#8217;s also very quick with the stunt. At least in one occasion I saw him smoothly glided to the back of the DE and dashed up field to get to the QB. The regular season can&#8217;t come sooner.

(check back for the rest later... taking another break from all this typing)

Safety
You can probably deduce from the pictures posted that I spent some time watching Watkins, and I did. After starting camp with some flashes, I think he&#8217;s slowing down a bit. I am really rooting for him, but it doesn&#8217;t look like he&#8217;ll unseat the Killer this year. The reason has to do as much with his greenness as it is the good play of Keith Davis. I like the way Watkins get the ball. He&#8217;s the type who catches with his hands and not his body. With his great height and leaping ability, he&#8217;s going to be one heckuva FS. I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;ll win the job out of camp because Keith Davis is having a really good camp. In the drills that I saw of him, he made nice break to the ball, and is capable of making call adjustment in the secondary. Case in point, on one play where he and Henry were suppose to switch (offense lined up a RB on the outside and moved a receiver to the slot), the two switched but the offense still ended up making the play. When the two walked back to the line, the DB coach was questioning them what happened. I heard Henry said &#8220;My bad, he called it. He called it&#8221; while pointing to Davis. I am just not sure Watkins has the ability to make these kinds of call yet. On a related note, because of his tall/skinny build, Watkins has a high center of gravity, and you can see him struggle whenever the DBs are asked to do drills that involved making sharp cuts. On those drills, you would see him begin to turn, then put his hand on the ground to gain leverage, and then slip a little before making the cut. I can now understand how he can have trouble playing man, but be excellent in zone. This is something we fans would be interested to continue monitoring.

Coleman &#8211; never realized the guy is so huge. He&#8217;s just big! I didn&#8217;t pay much attention to him, but knowing that he&#8217;s playing significant amount of snap in the Saints game, I&#8217;ll keep my eyes on him. It looks like he might be another guy fighting for his roster spot.

Abram Elam &#8211; it wasn&#8217;t until the first pre-season game that I heard of him, but he&#8217;s going to stick. Not sure if he will win a roster spot, but if not, he&#8217;s destined to go on the Practice Squad. This kid plays hard and practices hard. I noticed him in my first practice immediately. He was knocking ball down, making tackles, and on one DB blitzing drill, even beat the blocking back to get to the QB. I have heard that he&#8217;s got a troubled past that led him to get kicked out of Notre Dame, but this is a kid I&#8217;ll be keeping my eyes on. I am excited about his potential.

Pile &#8211; it doesn&#8217;t look like he will stick. Just doesn&#8217;t seem like he has made many plays. Special team might be the only ticket for him to stay on this team.

Roy Williams &#8211; looks slimmer this year than last season. Other than that, he&#8217;s just playing like Roy. He and Davis are pretty tight, and both always seem to have fun joking and practicing.

CB
Newman &#8211; not much to share with you other than what you&#8217;ve come to expect from No.41, so perhaps I&#8217;ll share something I saw after the first practice. Newman was running to the fence where the fans stood. As fans got ready to get some autographs, I saw a fan handing Newman some memorabilia. Instead of signing it, Newman turned and began running back to the field, toward Terrell Owens. As it turned out, this fan wanted an autograph from Owens, and was asking Newman to help. Newman answered and did the fan a favor. Newman got the autograph, ran back to the fan, delivered the good, and then began signing autographs for the rest of the fans. I mean, just how many football players would do that? Enuf said.

Henry and Aaron Glen &#8211; Nothing to report that you haven&#8217;t already read. Henry doesn&#8217;t strike me as someone interested in training camp practices, or maybe he was just quiet. Most of the time he was just standing there watching as thing unfolds, but rarely did I see any emotion from him. Glen is Glen.

Reeves had that one bad morning where he was made the ***** of Hurd, the one that led to Parcells screaming at him &#8220;Jacques Reeves. That was No. 3!&#8221; He did bounce bad later that day and I saw him running in stride, step-by-step, to Owens and defended the pass. He&#8217;ll hold down the fourth corner spot behind Newman, Henry and Glen.

Nathan Jones &#8211; not really sure about him. I just didn&#8217;t pay much attention to him, didn&#8217;t see him make many plays, nor saw him give up any. I just don&#8217;t know. Same for Quincy Butler.

Lenny Williams &#8211; the guy just can&#8217;t catch a ball to save his life. If anyone should stick around after practices to catch the ball, he&#8217;s the one, but I didn&#8217;t see that. I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;ll be on the roster for long.

On Ellis... Im guessing on any play where the defense drops back into zone coverage he's spelled by Singleton. I dont seen Greg trying to cover a TE, he just doesnt move that well. Im betting he'll be strictly a pass rusher when he's in.

The Camp reports from our own members have been some of the most informative info all of Training Camp. I do appreciate the Blogs by the Dallas media as they have been better than the articles, but they still trail the members here in value IMO. Yes, they've known behind the scenes stories that the members have not had access to, but the members have been detailed accounts with pictures and commentary. I haven't sensed any favoritism for their own project players. Just good, solid commentary.

I'm seriously stoked about the damage this defensive unit is going to be capabable of doing this year... I remember last year our D had this swagger about them and this new attitude that I haven't seen here in forever.. I love tight-knit units that work together to blow s*** up.. which is what we have goin on here, hopefully

I'm seriously stoked about the damage this defensive unit is going to be capabable of doing this year... I remember last year our D had this swagger about them and this new attitude that I haven't seen here in forever.. I love tight-knit units that work together to blow stuff up.. which is what we have goin on here, hopefully

I'm more stoked about this defense than I have been since 1995. I want to see some hitting and intimidation. We have the guys to do it. Carp is a hitter. Ware is a hitter. Canty is a hitter. Henry did some last year pre injury. Roy is THE hitter.

I want to see a lot of 3 and outs, some QB pressure, and some takeaways. This team rides ont he back of this D in 2006. I really believe that.